Purpose

To consolidate, disseminate, and gather information concerning the 710 expansion into our San Rafael neighborhood and into our surrounding neighborhoods. If you have an item that you would like posted on this blog, please e-mail the item to Peggy Drouet at pdrouet@earthlink.net

Monday, October 13, 2014

Ambitious New High-Speed Rail Plan Will Fly Americans To Japan To Use Their Trains

Obama says his high-speed rail plan will allow U.S. citizens to travel
virtually anywhere in Japan safely, dependably, and efficiently.

WASHINGTON—In an effort to bring the United
States’ transportation network “into the 21st century,” President
Barack Obama unveiled an ambitious new high-speed rail plan Friday that
will fly Americans to Japan in order to use the island nation’s
extensive, state-of-the-art train system.
According to the
president, the $80 billion initiative will subsidize airline tickets
between the U.S. and several major Japanese cities, allowing the
American people to enjoy all the benefits of a modernized network of
high-speed trains as soon as their international flights touch down in
the East Asian country.

“After years of lagging behind other
industrialized nations, this new plan at last provides our citizens with
a cutting-edge passenger train network that will rival the world’s most
advanced transit systems,” said Obama at a morning press conference,
touting Japan’s fast, safe, and comfortable Shinkansen rail network as a
vital upgrade to the U.S.’s outdated Amtrak service. “Under this new
plan, all Americans will be able to travel quickly and reliably between
hundreds of destinations by simply taking a trans-Pacific flight across
nine time zones and then boarding one of dozens of lightning-fast,
ultramodern trains.”

“The transit system that the U.S. has needed
for so long is now just a 7,000-mile plane journey to Tokyo’s Narita
International Airport and a brief passage through Japanese customs
away,” Obama continued.

In his speech, the president emphasized
the vast improvement in efficiency that would be achieved through his
proposal, claiming that residents of population centers such as Miami,
Seattle, and Detroit would soon have ready access to 1,500 miles of
dedicated high-speed rail tracks via a short drive to their nearest
airport and a series of connecting flights and layovers.

Administration
officials stressed that, after their transoceanic journey, Americans
would be able to avoid the hassles of driving by “sitting back and
relaxing” on a bullet train as they crossed the countryside at speeds of
up to 200 miles per hour, passing through both major cities and
smaller, rural prefectures on the Tōkaidō line and seven other reliable,
congestion-free rail routes. Additionally, White House officials noted
that passengers would be able to travel between Tokyo and Osaka in just
two and a half hours, following their 10 or more hours of plane travel.

Sources
confirmed that the new system would also be far more environmentally
sound than current transportation methods, as Americans would no longer
have to depend on fuel-intensive, smog-producing automobiles or buses
and could instead travel across the landscape of a different continent
in comfort aboard the rail system’s fully electric and “whisper-quiet”
train cars.

“Imagine stretching out in a spacious berth in a sleek, 16-car Hikari
train following a quick red-eye from O’Hare, LAX, or LaGuardia,”
Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx told reporters, noting that
travelers will have the option of either purchasing individual tickets
for the kakueki teisha trains or acquiring a 21-day unlimited
pass for approximately 60,000 yen. “Any American citizen who wants to
experience the ease of high-speed rail travel, and who has an up-to-date
passport and an English-Japanese phrase book, will be able to fly
straight to Japan to do so.”

Thousands of commuters confirmed that
they have already booked their overseas plane tickets in order to take
advantage of punctual, frequent rail service between major Japanese
cities, hailing the new system as a welcome alternative to the stress
and waste of existing U.S. transportation methods.
“Around here,
we don’t have that many dependable mass transit choices, so I’m excited
about trying out these new trains once I can get a few days off from
work and take a flight over,” said Cincinnati resident Christopher
Thomas. “Now, there’s nothing stopping me from packing a suitcase,
hopping on a 747, and, after filling out and submitting an official
declaration form upon arrival, taking a train absolutely anywhere I want
within the country.”

“It’s great,” he added. “I’m just glad the
U.S. finally decided to invest in our future and make high-speed rail
travel a reality.”